The Labour party has long been dubbed the party of working people – but despite the term being integral to the group’s existence, Sir Keir Starmer’s army have so far demonstrated an extraordinary degree of ineptness when pushed on its definition. After new transport minister Heidi Alexander caused a flurry of excitement at the weekend when she gave her own description of ‘working people’ – only those on ‘modest incomes’, apparently – Mr S decided to compile a list of all the, er, contradictory accounts of how exactly the phrase has been interpreted by the Labour lot.
18 June 2024: Sir Keir Starmer suggested ahead of the 2024 general election that working people are those ‘who earn their living, rely on our services and don’t really have the ability to write a cheque they get into trouble’. So not those with savings, then?
19 June 2024: Well, er, hold on. Then-shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves was quick to query her boss, telling Sky News that: ‘Working people are people who go out to work and work for their incomes.’ She added: ‘There are people who do have savings, who have been able to save up and those are working people as well.’ Talk about a turnaround, eh!
23 October 2024: Tory MP Oliver Dowden was onto something when he quizzed Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner in PMQs about her definition of working people. Yet twice Rayner refused to answer the question – even when Dowden specifically pressed her on whether the ‘five million small business owners in this country’ are working people.
24 October 2024: Never mind having a bit of spare change left over, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy announced ahead of Reeves’s autumn budget that someone on a six-figure salary who goes to work also counts as a ‘working person’. ‘I mean, if they go to work obviously they will be working,’ was her inspiring take.
25 October 2024: But – wait a second. Starmer wasn’t on the same page as his Cabinet Secretary it seems, and the Prime Minister hurriedly clarified that landlords and shareholders would not ‘come within my definition’ of working people. He added sniffily: ‘I think people watching this will know whether they’re in that group or not.’ Fat chance when the government can’t even work it out!
27 October 2024: While those raking in more than £100,000 a year may be classed as ‘working people’, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson wasn’t quite sure if the definition could be extended to small business owners on £13,000 per annum. In her rather confused response to questions from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, she stated a working person was someone ‘whose main income arises from the fact that they go out to work every day’ such as, for example, Cabinet ministers like herself. How convenient! Yet when Phillipson was asked on whether small business owners who earn their income from profits, she dismissed the scenario as ‘hypothetical’. How reassuring…
30 October 2024: Employers are not working people, but employees are, the Chancellor says via her autumn budget which saw employer’s national insurance contributions rise. But with concerns that bosses will try to offset the extra cost by, um, firing staff, the degree to which ‘working people’ will be harmed by the move is certainly debatable.
13 July 2025: New Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander claimed at the weekend that the government had pledged not to raise taxes for ‘people on modest incomes, working people’. So what does this mean? That a six-figure salary is a modest income? That those earning more than £100,000 are no longer included in this category? That small business owners are? Steerpike welcomes any suggestions…
14 July 2025: Darren Jones insists that ‘anyone who gets a payslip’ is a working person.
14 July 2025: Rachel Reeves is asked to define ‘working people’ and replies by suggesting that income tax, VAT and National Insurance are the ‘key taxes that working people pay’ before adding ‘I don’t think we need to define more than that, really.’
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